ARTICLES ABOUT MERCK BY DATE - PAGE 4

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co said on Friday it is suspending sales of its Zilmax animal feed additive in the United States and Canada following concerns about animals showing signs of distress after use of the product, which is given to cattle to increase their weight before slaughter. Zilmax has been the focus of attention in the livestock industry since Tyson Foods Inc announced last week it will no longer accept Zilmax-fed cattle for slaughter. Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures rose Friday on expectations that a cutback in Zilmax use could trim the supply of beef beginning this fall, although producers said they did not expect major changes.

(Reuters) - Big Pharma is still relying on belt-tightening to prop up financial results. Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co said on Tuesday their quarterly results were again hit by generic competition for once top-selling products and the toll of a strong dollar on overseas revenue. Controls on marketing and administrative expenses, and other costs, helped them report earnings slightly above Wall Street estimates. But neither company offered investors a quick return to growth based on new products, even if the worst of the "patent cliff" for best-selling drugs that have lost marketing exclusivity is behind them.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration canceled an advisory committee meeting set for Thursday to discuss Merck & Co's sugammadex, a drug designed to reverse the effects of muscle-relaxants used during surgery. The FDA declined to say why the meeting had been canceled, referring questions to Merck. A spokeswoman for Merck did not immediately return a phone call or email seeking comment. Sugammadex is the first in a new class of drugs, known as selective relaxant binding agents, that are designed to reverse the effects of the muscle-relaxants rocuronium and vecuronium.

July 16 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc said on Tuesday that U.S. health regulators need more time to review its application to sell sugammadex, an injection designed to reverse the effects of muscle relaxants used during surgery. The announcement came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration canceled a meeting of outside advisers that had been set for Thursday. Merck said the FDA told the company it needed additional time to assess the results of its recently completed inspection of one of Merck's clinical trial sites.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators need more time to review Merck & Co's application to sell sugammadex, an injection designed to reverse the effects of muscle relaxants used during surgery, the company said on Tuesday. The announcement came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration canceled a meeting of outside advisers who were scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to recommend the drug be approved. The FDA declined to give an explanation for its unusual last-minute cancellation.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's top economic planning agency is investigating costs and prices charged by drugmakers, including units of GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, as foreign firms come under pressure from Beijing over possible price-fixing. The move follows a separate probe into instant milk powder, which has already led to price cuts. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is surveying production costs and prices charged at multiple foreign and Chinese drug companies, according to a July 2 statement from the commission.

* Among those who got the highest dose, 52 percent responded * Company to start phase-three trial in third quarter By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) - A Merck & Co drug designed to unmask tumor cells and mobilize the immune system into fighting cancer helped shrink tumors in 38 percent of patients with advanced melanoma in an early-stage study, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. The findings on the melanoma drug lambrolizumab were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this weekend.